A luddite’s soft approach to creativity
Without accepting commissions and no upcoming shows, artist Laura Henley is hard to pin down but her work is worth the search. As she is a proud luddite, yet understanding some social media is needed, her work can only be seen on her Instagram @LLHenley.
“There’s a certain pace of work that I strive for—that would be a massively slow pace—that is really at odds with the speed of my iPhone and of people’s expectations for representational art. Or any art,” she says. “I feel like I’m still in the middle of some crucial development that is tenuous and on-going. I’m like jello that’s partially set—I need to stay in the fridge and be left alone.”
Remembering a desire to draw since the age of three, she proclaims she is not self-taught and has received guidance from a ton of developed artists over the years. Mary Carrithers, Danny Filipino, and Shelly Winters were integral parts of her early development then when she was older, she took workshops with folks like Mia Bergeron, Hollis Dunlap, Angela Cunningham and Seth Haverkamp.
As many artists like to have goals of more shows or to learn a new technique, Laura is refreshing in her approach to 2020 with a heavier focus on personal goals that will inevitably assist with her personal goals. “I hope to feel a sense of naturalness and calm while painting. I’d like for painting to feel like washing the dishes. Casual yet necessary for a functioning household.”
From Chattanooga, Laura is rooted in North Chattanooga now after being transitional for almost a decade. She resides in the same neighborhood she grew up in, just walking distance from her grandparent’s house and every house she lived in during her childhood.
“I love the old houses and scrubby backyards. I love that my dad shopped at Agnew Hardware on Frazier Ave. I love that Tremont Tavern was an antique store when I was little and that Daily Ration was the Exxon. The magic is here,” she smiles. “There is a house on Tremont Street in complete disrepair that my grandmother grew up thinking was the absolute most beautiful house she had ever seen. As long as it’s up, my E’ma and I still enjoy its beauty and possibility.”
From seascapes to her mom’s backyard to fruit to the human form, her works consistently portray a soft stratum of colorful brushstrokes that invoke a sense of solitude and respite to me. A single flower uncluttered in all its sometimes-short lived glory. A nude female curvaceous in simplicity and solemnity. Laura’s favorite subject is the human body yet not all her models are nude.
“Nothing is as real or thrilling as painting the figure from life. Nothing feels as precious,” she says while she points out a pencil drawing of her sister Katie. “I love drawing or painting her. She’s like me but different which is endlessly fascinating.” Having drawn and painted off and on for years at Townsend Atelier, she finds her reoccurring models more interesting and promising than models who are entirely new to her.
When asked about which of her completed creations were her favorite, she responded she didn’t have any. “I love Diarmuid Kelley who was asked in an interview why he does not ‘finish’ his paintings and he said something like ‘I am fine to stop painting when I stop being interested and whether or not I paint this way, I understand there being no reason to paint when something does not need to be discovered.’”
Of her own work, her most beloved pieces are the ones hanging up in her studio that have been incomplete drawings for over a year as she loves that they still contain so many possibilities. “They aren’t closed. I like looking at them and feeling like I still have so much runway with them. They can keep becoming in a way which my finished work can’t.”
Laura has no desire to constantly post her work on social media as she is reveling in her creative space with more internal privacy. “It’s a great thing for imagination; the ability to hear oneself think.” However, her intermittent Instagram posts do allow a glimpse into her works which may be up for purchase. Living in a very visual society that is stimulated by so much, it is a joy to consciously pause and be patient for someone’s creativity to present itself.